Eclipse, a young adult/fantasy novel, is the third book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Preceded by New Moon and followed by Breaking Dawn, it continues the story of 18-year-old Bella Swan and her vampire love, Edward Cullen. The book was released on August 7, 2007 with an initial print run of one million copies, selling more than 150,000 copies in the first 24 hours alone.

Contents

Marketing campaigns

The first chapter of Eclipse, was released in the special edition of New Moon. Meyer released the first chapter on her website, also posting a "quote of the day" from the novel each day leading up to its release.

Cover and title significance

The book jacket features a torn red ribbon. Although it was supposed to be disclosed to the public in May 2007 at the Eclipse Prom, Barnes & Noble, Stephenie Meyer's official website premiered the cover in March 2007, along with a preview summary of the book's plot. The title, Eclipse, is a reference to Jacob and Edward. While talking to Bella, Jacob refers to Edward as an eclipse, after Bella refers to him as her personal sun. In the end, an eclipse will always overpower the rays of the sun.[1]
The broken ribbon represents choice, as in the book Bella must chose between her love for Edward Cullen and her friendship with Jacob Black. Meyer also stated that the ribbon represents the idea that Bella can't break away completely from her human life.[2] In the book there is a poster which features 2 halves of Bella's face. In one eye there is a picture of Edward Cullen and in the second eye there is a picture of Jacob Black. This shows how Bella is torn between her love for Edward and Jacob.

Early book release and critique

Cover of the Eclipse companion novella

On July 25, an incident similar to the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows incident occurred with shipments of Eclipse. Barnes and Noble booksellers accidentally shipped advance copies of Eclipse to some of the customers who had pre-ordered. Barnes and Noble said, that it was a computer error, as their entire online store is computerized.

To prevent any spoilers from appearing online, many fansite forums for the Twilight series were shut down, such as the Twilight Lexicon. It was also suggested that Stephenie Meyer locked her MySpace comments so as to avoid spoilers being posted.
In an open letter to the fansite the Twilight Lexicon, Stephenie Meyer pleaded with these "lucky readers" to please keep the ending to themselves until the rest of the Twilight fans had the chance to read and enjoy Eclipse as well.

An early book release also occurred with Stephenie Meyer's release of Eclipse Special Edition. The special edition was to hit store shelves on May 31, 2008, but multiple copies were released up to a whole week early. Stephenie Meyer herself knew that some copies had been leaked, and released the following statement:

"There is a lot of speculation on the internet about possible covers, content and text of Breaking Dawn. I hope everybody knows that you shouldn't believe everything you see on the internet. The only way you will know what is real is when you have the book in your hands. Until then, people should really take everything they see with a grain of salt."[3]

Meyer had this quote posted on her website on May 22, 2008 because, Eclipse Special Edition included the first chapter, entitled "Engaged", and cover art of the upcoming novel Breaking Dawn.

Plot summary

The story begins with the revelation that Seattle is being plagued by a string of unsolved murders, which Edward suspects to be the result of newborn vampires unable to control their thirst. Edward and Bella fill out college applications, while Bella explains to Edward her desire to see her werewolf friend Jacob again, so she can make things right with him. Meanwhile, Alice Cullen has a vision that Victoria, a vampire that is hunting Bella to get revenge for her mate's, James, death , is back in town. Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella insists that Jacob and the rest of the werewolf pack would never harm her, but he is still not convinced. Bella escapes to La Push to see Jacob while Edward is away, and arrives afterwards at her house unharmed. This convinces Edward that the La Push werewolves are harmless to her, and he allows Bella to visit Jacob once in a while, as long as she keeps a phone with her at all times. During one of these trips, Jacob confesses that he loves Bella and forcibly kisses her. Bella punches him, which in turn breaks her hand. When Edward finds out, he threatens to break Jacob's jaw if he ever kisses Bella without her consent again.

A few days later, Bella tries to get Edward to make love to her before turning her into a vampire. Edward initially refuses, explaining to Bella that he could very easily kill her. Eventually, upon realizing how much it means to Bella, he says that he is willing to try in the future as long as they are married first. Despite having an aversion to marriage, Bella realizes that spending eternity with Edward is more important to her than anything else and accepts his proposal.

Bella and the Cullens realize that the murders in Seattle are being committed by Victoria and an "army" of newborn vampires that she has created. The Cullen family, abandoned by the Denali Coven, joins forces with the La Push werewolf pack in order to combat this threat. As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward and Bella camp up in the mountains, where they are later joined by Jacob and Seth Clearwater, to wait out the fight. Bella, as a delicate human, starts to freeze in the harsh weather of the mountain. Jacob warms up Bella with his abnormal body heat, much to Edward's chagrin. During the night, Bella also overhears a conversation between Edward and Jacob, in which they temporarily forget about their hatred towards each other.

In the morning, Jacob overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement and becomes very upset. He runs off, but at Bella's request, Edward brings Jacob. He threatens to join the fight and get himself killed because he feels that Bella doesn't love him. When Bella begs him not to, Jacob insists that he will unless she asks him to kiss her. Furious, she does so, and while kissing him she realizes that she is in love with him as well. Edward finds out about this, but isn't angry. Bella realizes that she loves Edward more than Jacob.

Victoria eventually finds Bella's hiding spot, but Edward kills her while Seth kills her partner Riley. The Cullens and the Quileute werewolves, meanwhile, destroy her "army", though Jacob is injured when saving Leah Clearwater from a newborn. Since werewolves heal quickly, his bones begin healing the wrong way; Carlisle has to break his bones again so they will set properly. Several members of the Volturi, Jane , Alec , Felix , and Demetri , arrive to destroy Victoria's army, and end up only killing the one newborn who surrendered, Bree. They are also told that while Bella hasn't become a vampire yet, the date for her transformation has been set.

Bella visits Jacob in his home to tell him that she has chosen to be with Edward. Heartbroken by her choice, Jacob reluctantly agrees to stop trying to come between her and Edward. He says that he was giving up Bella because he knew it was hurting her to choose, and since she always thought of him as her sun, he "can't fight an eclipse", which gives the book its title. Bella then goes back to Edward. They go to Alice, who already knows they're getting married. Alice has already made a number of plans for the wedding, but Bella edits some of them. After this, they go to Edward's meadow. Edward says that they can make love before marrying if she wants to, but Bella has decided to do things his way: marriage, making love, and then becoming a vampire. They then decide they need to tell Charlie about their engagement.

The epilogue is told from Jacob's point of view, who is suffering from a broken heart. He receives an invitation to Bella and Edward's wedding. Inside it is a letter from Edward, thanking him for "everything," and saying that if Jacob didn't want to come, he doesn't have to. Jacob, after reading the letter, runs away in his wolf form to escape the pain he feels.

Critical reception

Eclipse movie covers

Eclipse received mixed reviews. LoveVampires.com states that, "Adult readers may be put off by, the teenage relationship angst in this novel but if you have already enjoyed the author’s previous offerings I think there is still plenty here to entertain." Based on this, they gave Eclipse four and a half out of five stars.[4]DearAuthor.com said that, "It was clear to me that once the decision to remake Bella into a vampire was made, all natural tension evaporated and thus the author had to manufacture false conflict after false conflict to keep the storyline interesting." Dear Author also gave Eclipse a C- grade.[5]Revish.com said that Eclipse, " never [had] a dull moment... [and is] one of the greatest love stories I've ever encountered."[6]

Anne Rouyer of School Library Journal said that, "Meyer knows what her fans want: thrills, chills, and a lot of romance, and she delivers on all counts." Selby Gibson-Boyce of Tulsa World wrote, "I read without stopping until I finished. Meyer's book would not detach itself from my hand. Exactly the same thing happened with Twilight and New Moon."

Film adaptation

Summit Entertainment announced that it would be adapting Eclipse into a film, with a release date set for June 30, 2010.[7] The director was confirmed as David Slade, who previously directed the movies Hard Candy and 30 Days Of Night. Since New Moon director Chris Weitz was in post-production for New Moon when Eclipse began shooting, he did not direct imdb third film. Filming began on August 17, 2009, and ran until October 29. The film opened at number one at the box office and grossed a total of 300,523,113 by October 17th, 2010 in the USA, according to imdb. The DVD/Blu-Ray was released December 4th, 2010 and sold $3 million in its first weekend of release.